Vantage News

Esgian reports on the many rig movements that occurred last week in its Week 16 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report SummaryContractsADES Holding Company has received a letter of award from an international oil company for a one-year firm drilling contract for a jackup offshore Qatar.TotalEnergies has exercised a three-well option for Transocean 12,000-ft drillship Deepwater Skyros offshore Angola at a rate of $400,000, keeping the rig working into December 2025.After initially beginning a short-term job in the US GOM in January 2024…

Esgian reports various drilling contractors disclosing details of discussions with Saudi Aramco regarding jackup contract suspensions in its Week 14 Rig Analytics Market Roundup. These contractors include Shelf Drilling, ADES, Borr Drilling, Arabian Drilling, COSL, and ARO Drilling.Meanwhile, Transocean, Noble, and COSL rigs have firmed up new work in the US Gulf of Mexico, Suriname, and the North Sea, respectively.Report overview:ContractsShelf Drilling has received a notice of suspension of operations on four jackup rigs from a customer in the Middle East.

Esgian reports shifts in demand in its Week 13 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report overview:ContractsADES has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from PTTEP Energy Development Company Limited for an 18-month jackup drilling contract in the Gulf of Thailand. Operations are expected to begin in the second half of 2024, with an unspecified jackup.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for an exploration well in…

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and…

Esgian's last roundup of the year for the Week 52 puts spotlight on new developments for Dolphin Drilling semisub, Seadrill drillships, as well as Shell’s plans for Australia and ONGC’s new tender for jackups in India.ContractsDolphin Drilling has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an undisclosed operator for the 1,500-ft semisubmersible Borgland Dolphin to undertake a 500-day drilling campaign in the UK. The drilling campaign is planned to begin directly after the firm part of the contract period with EnQuest, which was announced in late November 2023.

Eidesvik Offshore has entered into agreements to sell its three remaining seismic vessels, Veritas Viking, Vantage, and Viking Vision, to two separate buyers. All the vessels are in lay-up and treated as held for sale in the company accounts. Eidesvik Offshore did not say who the buyers were.The company will, at completion of the sales, expected during this summer, recognize a total gain of approximately NOK 63 million (currently around $5,6 million).Gitte Gard Talmo, President & CEO of Eidesvik commented: "We are pleased to announce the sale of these non-strategic assets with a solid gain. The sale will further improve an already strong balance sheet.”

The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbor could no longer accommodate the needs of modernized shipping.In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock…

SunStone Maritime Group A/S took delivery of two Infinity class ships -- Sylvia Earle and Ocean Odyssey -- from the CMHI Shipyard in Haimen, China. The pair are the fourth and the fifth of the Infinity class delivered from China Merchant Heavy Industries, and both will be on long-term, year-round charter: the SYLVIA EARLE with Aurora Expeditions, and the OCEAN ODYSSEY with Vantage Deluxe World Travel.The Infinity series of ships represents a collaboration between European design and technology and Chinese shipbuilding.Infinity class ships measure 104 x 18m with a 5.1m draft.

Rolls-Royce is expanding its range of mtu NautIQ ship automation systems with three new products offering different levels of intelligent crew support, autonomous control and remote command capabilities.The new products—mtu NautIQ CoPilot, mtu NautIQ CoOperate and mtu NautIQ CoDirect—are the next step in the cooperation between Rolls-Royce and autonomous control and remote-vessel command systems developer Sea Machines Robotics, which was first announced in September 2021.The most advanced intelligent pilot assist system of the new product range…

SunStone Ships announced the successful launch of itts fifth, Infinity-Class Vessel, Ocean Odyssey.The series is an interesting one as it was started wiith the goal of melding European design and Chinese shipbuilding.“We are very pleased with the high quality, design solutions and equipment packages," said Niels-Erik Lund, SunStone CEO. "We are looking forward to continuing the relationships with all our partners in the Infinity-Class project.”The Launching Ceremony of the OCEAN ODYSSEY (CMHI 196-5) took place at China Merchant Heavy Industries in Haimen, China.

Billionaire John Fredriksen-owned offshore drilling company Northern Drilling said Tuesday it had canceled a drillship resale contract with the South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).In May 2018, Northern Drilling signed agreements with DSME to buy two newbuilding 7th generation DP3 and ultra-deepwater capable drillships DSME known as the West Aquila and the West Libra, for $296 million each with $90 million paid at contract signing and the remainder at delivery. However, Northern Ocean said  Tuesday it had canceled the contract for the West Aquila drillship due to delay of delivery as well as a repudiatory breach of contract.Northern Drilling…

Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has said it has delivered the MSC Seashore - the largest cruise ship to be built in Italy - to the cruise division of MSC GroupAlso, Fincantieri said Monday that MSC Seashore's sister ship MSC Seascape was under construction at the Monfalcone shipyard. MSC Seascape is expected to enter service in the winter of 2022.Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of the Cruise Division of MSC Group, said the construction of MSC Seashore is an investment that generates an impact on the Italian economy of almost 5 billion euros and the employment of up to 4…

Expedition cruise ships operator SunStone Ships announced it has taken delivery of its second INFINITY Class vessel, Ocean Explorer, from China Merchants Heavy Industry's yard in Haimen.The newbuild will soon make its way to Manilla to pick up crew, followed by a short stop in Malta to get the remaining hotel crew and supplies before commencing cruises from Poole in the U.K. in late August. The vessel will make year-round expedition cruises worldwide for Vantage Travel.Small enough…

Expedition cruise vessel Ocean Victory, under construction at the CMHI Haimen shipyard in China, is slated to commence sea trials by the end of the week, Norwegian designer Ulstein revealed Thursday.The newbuild is the third in the Ulstein-designed CX103 INFINITY series for U.S.-based owner SunStone Ships.The 104.4-meter-long vessel offers capacity for 200 passengers in 93 suites, 68 with balconies, nine with French balconies and 16 with panoramic windows. An infinity pool has been installed…

“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do”Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonIt is hard to get past headlines painting the portrait of a world besieged physically and economically by a medical crisis on a global scale and a nation that has turned the national spotlight onto the fundamentals of its constitutional democracy, including the persistence of racism, the right to protest and the character of local and national security forces in the United States.

SunStone's new expedition cruise vessel 'Ocean Explorer' was launched last week at the CMHI shipyard, China, Ulstein, the vessel designer has informed.The ship is number four in the INFINITY class of X-BOW expedition ships, all designed by Ulstein. The vessel for which the keel was laid in January, was launched on Wednesday, August 12, 2020.INFINITY Class Vessels are 104 meters long, and 18 meters wide, having a draft of 5.1 meters. They feature a passenger capacity between 130-200 and a crew capacity between 85 and 115.

Truth be told, my ship-spotting addiction (nurtured by webcams streaming on the internet and fueled further by excessive desk-time during the 2020 pandemic) actually started with some business purpose. Agents in far flung locales were sometimes not as swift as hoped for with their reports- so when a vessel was visible online, augmented by AIS driven position websites, information flows to clients or partners in various supply chains were improved. It probably started around 2014 when a client’s vessel was transiting through Miraflores Locks in Panama.

As COVID-19 and a historically weak energy market wreaks havoc on maritime, Takeshi Okamoto, Corporate Officer and General Manager of Public Relations Team, ClassNK, tells Maritime Reporter & Engineering News in its May 2020 edition that the pandemic will effectively help to fast track portions of its ClassNK Digital Grand Design 2030 strategy, particularly "where we have a great interest in expanding evaluation methodologies using digital technology to substitute the current physical evaluation methods."Takeshi Okamoto was part of Maritime Reporter's report on 'Class'…

Buckley McAllister, President of McAllister Towing & Transportation, weighs in on the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the maritime sector.McAllister Towing & Transportation is a long and storied organization based in New York, the original U.S. COVID-19 hot spot that has been transformed from the city that never sleeps into a surreal ghost town. Describe the view from your perspective.All McAllister administrative personnel who can work from home are doing so. Luckily, most office personnel do most of their work online, so the need for actual visits to the office are infrequent.

As COVID-19 and a historically weak energy market wreaks havoc on the maritime industry, Christopher J. Wiernicki, CEO, American Bureau of Shipping, tells Maritime Reporter & Engineering News in its May 2020 edition that “COVID-19 will function as threat, a disruptor and catalyst for change, driving class further away from calendar maintenance towards predictive operations. The industry will accelerate its digitally driven movement into condition-based approaches and real-time…

WORK Microwave has announced the results of its technology demonstration with Intellian and Telesat to increase the reliability, performance, and throughput of broadband for maritime applications. Recently, the companies successfully tested a high-throughput data link from Mount Jackson, Virginia to Pompano Beach, Florida using WORK Microwave's AX-80 wideband modem, the Intellian v150NX 1.5m Ka-band wideband antenna, and the Telesat T19 VANTAGE High Throughput Satellite (HTS).

Bibby HydroMap have taken the 56-meter DP1 survey vessel Glomar Vantage on charter from GloMar Shipmanagement BV.The vessel will initially provide support to existing operations before becoming available for new projects in the first quarter of 2020.Bibby HydroMap CEO Gary Collins said, “The charter of the Glomar Vantage puts the company in a strong position going into 2020. We are delighted to be working with Glomar Shipmanagement and look forward to a successful project.”Glomar Shipmanagement CEO Klaas Weij said…

MasterCraft Boat Holdings announced that its Board of Directors has appointed current Board Chair, Frederick A. Brightbill, as Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.Brightbill’s appointment follows Terry McNew’s decision to step down as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company to pursue an opportunity outside of the boating industry. Brightbill is expected to serve until the Company completes a search and appoints a new Chief Executive Officer.“On behalf of the Board and the entire organization, I would like to thank Terry for his leadership, steadfast dedication and service to MasterCraft over the past seven years…